US Declares Indo-Pacific Theater The Priority

(WEBPUBLICA) NEW YORK – US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan asserted that the Indo-Pacific region was a “priority theater” where the US would support partner nations against attempts by any one nation to control it, DW (Deutsche Welle) reported quoting other news agencies.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Saturday warned China against threatening its neighbors’ sovereignty and called its actions in the Indo-Pacific region “a toolkit of coercion.”

The Indo-Pacific region covers the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean and the seas connecting them around Indonesia.

“China can and should have a cooperative relationship with the rest of the region … But behavior that erodes other nations’ sovereignty and sows distrust of China’s intentions must end,” he said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“Until it does, we stand against a myopic, narrow, and parochial vision of the future, and we stand for the free and open order that has benefited us all, including China.”

The Shangri-La Dialogue, a three-day security summit that brings together top defense representatives from around the world, ends Sunday.

Shanahan’s comments came amid heightened trade tensions between the US and China, the US decision to impose sanctions on Chinese tech giant Huawei, and the US’ approval of a weapons sale to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that the Communist mainland claims as its own territory.

SOUTH CHINA SEA COUNTRIES ARE BUILDING LARGER NAVIES

Pride of the Chinese armada

The first Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was originally a Soviet model built in 1986. In 1998, the stripped hulk was sold to China by Ukraine and rebuilt by the Dailian Shipbuilding Industry Company in northeastern China. It was completed in 2012 and has been ready for service since 2016.

Earlier in his speech, Shanahan referred to unspecified countries that had been ”deploying advanced weapons systems to militarize disputed areas,” “engaging in predatory economics and debt sovereignty deals” and “promoting state sponsored theft of other nations’ civilian technology.”

“No one country can, or should, dominate the Asia Pacific,” Shanahan said without specifically naming China.

The acting defense secretary made pointed references to Beijing’s campaign to put advanced weapons systems on disputed islands in the region.

“Perhaps the greatest long-term threat to the vital interests of states across this region comes from actors who seek to undermine, rather than uphold, the rules-based international order,” he said.

He appeared to reference artificial islands built by China in the disputed South China Sea, a strategic waterway claimed by Beijing.